Chapter 52: Encounter with the Mysterious Sedan Chair Again

“I want to go home and say goodbye to my parents, then come back to you. I promise this will be the only time.”

At this moment, Huang Yu had returned to her human form. To an ordinary person, there was nothing unusual about her appearance, so there was no need to worry about frightening her parents. However, since she had become a strange being, it wasn’t suitable for her to stay with her parents for too long; otherwise, she might lose control over her hunger for human flesh.

“I won’t strictly restrict your freedom. Our relationship is like that between employer and employee—you work for me most of the time, but you can occasionally take time off to visit home,” Xia Tianqiong said gently. He didn’t want to be too harsh on her; after all, she had parents and would naturally miss them, unlike himself. He had been an orphan since childhood, with no attachments.

Huang Yu smiled sweetly, like a blooming flower. “Thank you, boss. I will definitely be a qualified employee.”

The two chatted casually for a while longer before Xia Tianqiong let her leave, telling her to return in two days.

After Huang Yu left, Xia Tianqiong planned to upgrade all his contracted strange beings since he now had enough gold to do so.

“Has the Gambling Fate Spirit not awakened yet?”

It had been a full day and night, but the Gambling Fate Spirit had not yet completed its upgrade.

“It’s in the last courtyard. It looks like it’s about to break through, probably within today or tomorrow.”

The Mirror Spirit spoke before the Delivery Spirit could, then hesitated before cautiously asking, “Master, could I also upgrade?”

It knew that Xia Tianqiong currently had plenty of Dark Gold, enough to upgrade all the contracted spirits simultaneously.

Xia Tianqiong looked at the Mirror Spirit. “How long will it take you to break through to the Fierce Spirit level?”

“I’ll need a bit more time than the Gambling Fate Spirit—around five to six days,” the Mirror Spirit replied.

After hearing this, Xia Tianqiong fell silent, seeming hesitant. The Mirror Spirit immediately grew nervous—was it because its upgrade would take too long?

Its guess was correct. Xia Tianqiong’s main combat force now rested on it. If it went into upgrade mode, only the eight Delivery Spirits would be available. Though there were eight of them, their strength was too weak to handle matters alone.

After a moment’s thought, Xia Tianqiong made a decision. “Wait until Huang Yu returns, then you upgrade. At that time, get the gold directly from the Delivery Spirit.”

“Thank you, Master,” the Mirror Spirit said joyfully.

Since Huang Yu would be back in two days, waiting was not a problem.

“What about us? We want to upgrade too,” Xiao Ba, the forgetful one, immediately spoke up after just being scolded by Xia Tianqiong.

“Don’t worry, I said everyone will have a chance to upgrade, and I’ll keep my word. But to maintain combat strength, you must upgrade one at a time,” Xia Tianqiong said, this time refraining from scolding Xiao Ba. After all, they were all his contracted spirits, serving him.

His gaze swept over the eight Delivery Spirits—each different in height, build, and appearance—before settling on one.

“Let’s start with Xiao Yi. It was the first among you to contract with me.”

All eight Delivery Spirits thanked him in unison, expecting to take turns upgrading in order from one to eight. However, Xia Tianqiong’s next words left them dumbfounded.

“After Xiao Yi, whoever upgrades next and whoever follows will be decided by the Delivery Spirit. You need to help me select the most promising ones and prioritize their upgrades.”

The first half of this statement was addressed to the Delivery Spirits, but the latter half came as Xia Tianqiong patted the Delivery Spirit on the shoulder.

The Delivery Spirit nodded repeatedly, a humble smile on its face, though inside it was bursting with joy.

The eight Delivery Spirits exchanged secret glances, each wearing a strange expression, hesitant to speak.

Just a few hours ago, they had swiped someone’s fruit, and Xiao Ba had even resorted to violence. Now, the right to decide who upgrades first was in that spirit’s hands.

This was a very bad sign—it meant the master was backing it up.

The Delivery Spirits wanted to protest and ask Xia Tianqiong to rescind the decision, but no one dared to speak.

Xia Tianqiong took out his phone and checked the time.

It was already past three in the afternoon, with three or four hours until nightfall. Feeling a bit hungry, he left the Mirror Space to find somewhere to eat.

Just as he stepped out, his phone reconnected to the outside world’s signal and immediately buzzed with a string of WeChat notifications and several missed calls.

All the messages were from Jiang Yu. Opening them, his brow furrowed deeply.

He called her immediately. “Are you okay?”

On the other end, Jiang Yu’s voice was choked with tears. “I’m fine, but the warehouse was taken over and I was kicked out. I called the police, but they said it’s a civil dispute and refused to get involved.”

Since the day before yesterday, Jiang Yu had been helping Xia Tianqiong purchase all sorts of survival supplies, barely sleeping for two nights straight.

After spending two hundred million yuan, she had filled three warehouses with supplies.

Then, just at noon today, a group showed up, claiming they had rented the warehouse first and that Jiang Yu had no right to use it.

Jiang Yu contacted the warehouse leasing company, and the person in charge confirmed the contract was genuine but admitted it was a staff error to rent her a warehouse still in use by someone else. They promised to arrange a different warehouse for her.

This seemed reasonable.

However, when Jiang Yu tried to move the supplies out, the group stopped her, claiming the goods inside were theirs.

Only then did Jiang Yu realize these people were after the supplies.

At first, she didn’t take it too seriously.

After all, purchases came with invoices and payment records, and reporting to the police should have been enough to prove ownership.

But reality was far from what she expected.

When the police arrived, they ignored the invoices and payment records, only saying it was a civil dispute and Jiang Yu needed to pursue it through legal channels, then they left.

Soon after, Jiang Yu was violently expelled by the group and forbidden from approaching the warehouse.

“That’s what happened,” Jiang Yu said, voice trembling with tears. “Tianqiong, what should we do now?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll handle it when I get back.”

A flicker of anger rose in Xia Tianqiong’s heart as he coldly said, “Next time something like this happens, don’t call the police. Just eliminate them.”

The chaotic era was coming, or perhaps already upon them. Then, it wouldn’t just be the strange beings killing people—people would kill each other too.

For a bit of survival supplies or to fulfill some strange being’s rule, countless people would be driven to murder.

Jiang Yu, frightened by his tone, forgot to cry. “But... I’m afraid to kill people!”

“You’ll learn to be brave. Send me the warehouse location. I’m heading back now.”

“Okay, I’ll wait for you at the entrance.”

After hanging up, Xia Tianqiong began to consider how to get back to Lin’an City as quickly as possible.

It was still daylight, so he couldn’t use Shadow Teleport for travel.

Driving on the highway would take six or seven hours. Taking the high-speed train would be a bit over two hours, if tickets were even available.

Even two hours felt too slow to him; he wished he could teleport straight to the warehouse door.

Suddenly, he remembered a VIP benefit from the Spirit World Bank: no matter the problem, he could summon a spirit to help resolve it.

Though it wasn’t guaranteed a perfect solution, they would do their best.

Xia Tianqiong sent a mental command to the Delivery Spirit to bring the gold voucher, then held it, imprinting a message with his mind:

“Manager Hu, I need a spirit that can take me on a fast journey about six hundred kilometers away.”

After a couple of seconds, the gold voucher flashed.

Manager Hu’s voice came through: “Mr. Xia, your request has been received. Please wait a few minutes.”

This service could only be used three times a month and was somewhat costly for travel purposes, but Xia Tianqiong was in a hurry and didn’t want to wait.

Less than two minutes later, a red sedan chair suddenly materialized ahead, carried by eight strong men dressed in red.

Xia Tianqiong was momentarily stunned. Was this not the spirit sedan chair like the one from the Spirit Bride?

The eight strong men had stiff faces and milky white eyes, resembling reanimated corpses.

Even in daylight, they exuded a chilling and eerie aura.

The foremost man looked at Xia Tianqiong with pupil-less eyes and cold, mechanical voice: “Mr. Xia, the Spirit World Bank has sent us to serve you. Please board the sedan.”

“Wait a moment!”

Xia Tianqiong hesitated, unwilling to board immediately.

He still hadn’t figured out the matter with the red veil, and now he was entangled with the Spirit Bride’s sedan chair. He couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling.

Could those spirit brides really be coming after him?